after life, if they became paupers, surely it had a right to say, •We will insist on children receiving such a minimum of education as may enable them to earn their livelihood and become useful members of the community.'” (p. 64.) The claptrap cry about the liberty of the Englishman being endangered, has passed away. Those who think at all, are able to grant the first great principle upon which all law is based-viz., that the liberty of the individual must be restrained when prejudicial to the interests of the community in which he lives. If, by common consent, personal liberty may be so far curtailed, that every man is compelled to have regard to sanitary law in his dwelling, to support his children with food, clothing and shelter, and even to have them vaccinated lest infection should arise, it is difficult to understand why he should not be equally compelled to have his children educated when opportunity and ability are alike present. Certain it is that compulsion of some kind will sooner or later be found necessary for the members of the degraded classes. If they do not receive compulsory education in childhood, it has been well said, the policeman will ulti. mately, it is to be feared, have to compel them to go before the magistrate, and the magistrate compel them to go to prison. Better have the compulsion of the teacher than the gaoler, the school than the cell. The question of compulsion is not one of simple theory, however, so far as our country is concerned, but actual experience, though few probably are aware how many laws there are on the statute book enforcing primary education. If, for example, we turn to the children of the degraded and dependent classes, we have but to mention the reformatory and industrial schools. To the former, juvenile offenders; to the latter, vagrant, disorderly, and destitute children may be sent by the magistrates-the parents, if living, being liable to pay a sum not exceeding five shillings weekly in support. In all these schools, compulsory education is combined with due provision for shelter, clothing, and food. The Acts in reference to all these schools are, however, practically a dead letter, in consequence of the absence of the necessary buildings. Were these provided, it is not too much to say that we have the power to sweep our streets of those who are commonly named “ City Arabs,” and to furnish them with an education, such as would fit them, so far as human agency can provide, to become useful members of the community. So again, we have compulsory education in workhouse schools for the children of the inmates; and were the provision now made for free education of the children of parents receiving out-door relief (such parents having the choice of school) made compulsory,-the order for relief being conditional upon the attendance of the children at some school, such schooling, if necessary, forming part of the relief,-another step in advance would have been made. If we turn to the children of the independent labour classes, we shall find compulsory education already in existence. If we name “The Factory Act of 1844,” and its numerous applications, by successive additions, to children employed in mills, factories, print works, bleaching and dyeing works, lace factories, and every manufacturing process wherein fifty or more persons are employed in any premises constituting one trade establishment -and the compulsory regulations in reference to mines and collieries and workshops, -we must come to the conclusion expressed by Canon Richson, that “the Legislature appears to have determined that no parent shall, wherever it can be prevented, receive payment for the labour of his child, unless, at certain prescribed periods, he secure to that child suitable opportunities for some amount of education.”* Were the compulsory powers, already possessed, fully carried out by a due provision of reformatories and industrial schools, and the Factory and Workshop Acts made really operative, there would remain but a very small class for whom compulsion would be necessary. Compulsion, however, to be successfully applied, ought not to be exceptional and for a class, nor on the other hand too stringent, lest it should provoke a feeling against it which at present does not exist. If, retaining the enactments now existing in reference to the children of the degraded and dependent classes, we were content to pass, in reference to all other children, a short simple declaratory Act to the effect that after a certain date the parents or guardians of any child applying for work who could not read and write, or show certificates for school attendance for a certain period, should be liable, as in the case of neglect of vaccination, to a certain penalty and costs, and the child then committed to some industrial school, a sufficient stimulus, probably, would be provided in such an Act to accomplish what is desired, without establishing a system of house-to-house espionage, which would be most repugnant to the people at large. It need not be said that such a scheme of compulsion as that feebly shadowed forth, could not be enforced until the educational provision was adequate. A preliminary measure would be that all districts should be furnished with schools. By granting the Council Board of Education more extensive powers, in return for a more liberal scale of payment in aid, this might be quickly accomplished. After a certain period, during which destitute districts might be expected, by their own efforts aided * Canon Richson's Notes, pp. 15, 16; where a list of the Acts will be found. by increased government grants according to the necessities of the case, to provide the school accommodation required, it might be competent for the Council Board, any district remaining unprovided, to send down an inspector, and upon his report to erect schools, the cost, to a certain extent, to be defrayed by a district rate, but the management to devolve upon the Council. No long period need elapse, without taking an over sanguine view, before the school provision would be adequate. With such a gentle compulsory measure as we have named, and the effectual working of the Reformatory and Industrial Schools Acts, we should then be able to congratulate the country upon the possession of a system by which all the young would be cared for. There would be no very violent and sudden radical change, and our distinctive religious teaching would be preserved, and voluntary efforts correspondingly increased. · For the satisfactory working and complete success of such a system, a liberal conscience clause would be required. Speaking at the Manchester Education Conference, Dr. Howson, the Dean of Chester, stated that “it seemed to him most desirable that the clergy should be ready to accept a conscience clause, if only fairly and reasonably worded, and if a similar conscience clause was applied to schools connected with all other religious communities. His belief was, that the acceptance and generous working of a conscience clause would be very good policy on the part of the Church of England. The day was gone by when the Church of England could expect to live by mere prestige.” “This conviction was strengthened,” the Dean observed, “by his seventeen years' experience in the Liverpool College, where no difficulty ever arose in the working of a conscience clause, though, in the upper school, the proportion of Nonconformists was 20 per cent., in the middle 30, and in the lower as much as 40 per cent., in round numbers.” That there will be no settlement of the question without a conscience clause, may be gathered from the fact that a conscience clause occupies a prominent position in every scheme recently broached, by whatever party and to whatsoever government belonging. Ultimately it will be enforced, but at present the graceful concession would greatly strengthen the clergy. Its concession would purchase corresponding privileges, and the political dissenter would be deprived of his most specious cry of religious intolerance. Practically the influence of the clergyman for good would in no way be diminished, because, when conceded, a conscience clause is very rarely exercised, its existence being regarded as a sufficient safeguard. With its concession we should retain the children we already possess, and receive seven-tenths, at a moderate computation, of those who will be the subjects of compulsion. If the readers of this Article are prepared to take the same view of the features of the Education question as that taken by the writer, they will agree with him that it is most important for the best interests of the country, of our own Church, and above all of Scriptural Christianity, that the clergy and laity, putting on one side their own personal local interests, should combine in a vigorous effort to cover the remaining ground and to make the existing system more effective. In such an effort, the following would seem to be the points to be kept in mind : Ist. The creation of a fund for aiding the erection and enlargement of school-rooms in districts insufficiently provided plain commodious rooms, not expensive ornamental buildings —the cost of which experience proves can be reduced to a much lower outlay than some architects may be generally willing to admit. 2nd. An endeavour to procure a relaxation of the Committee of Council's regulations in favour of more liberal grants in aid of school erection; and again, without interfering with the payment for results, to obtain a more liberal scale of payment for attendance-such payment being at a higher scale for the first fifty children, so as to make it worth while for all schools, even the smallest, to associate themselves with the Council, and so receive the visit of the inspector. 3rd. A demand for some simple comprehensive Act for gentle compulsion. 4th. The expression of a general willingness to consent to a liberal conscience clause. Were some such programme adopted by the clergy and laity of our Church, and vigorously worked, it would be found that the Church was still strong enough to carry it. By such a movement, the cause of Education would be advanced, the hands of the Church herself strengthened, and much political and religious hostility disarmed. The establishment would be found to be, indeed, a nursing mother to many who, a few years hence, would be in the hour of her need, it may be, her loving sons and loyal supporters. It is not pleasant, on the other hand, to anticipate the postponement of the question, because it is to be feared, from the light thrown on “ Church and State” by recent events, that the Church would only be able to deal with Education as one of the sects; and then a national scheme, with secular Education and compulsory rating, would doubtless be the system into which we should drift. In the matter of Secular Education, the experience of America ought not to be lost upon the mother country. Deplorable as may be the depravity of our own nation, it can be proved that, for crime, immorality, juvenile delinquency, and rowdyism, America bears away the unenviable palm. An absence of Education, such as it is, cannot be assigned as the main cause, for it is absolutely free to all and each. In reading and writing they greatly excel, whilst every child can read the daily papers, of which there is no stint, and many even of our University dons would be startled by the number of subjects which an American “Miss” sends up for examination. Of Secular Education America has an abundance; but of religious teaching there is a dearth. “In religious instruction, in the sense which we in England attach to the words, it cannot be said that any provision at all is made. Anything like doctrinal or dogmatic teaching, anything of the nature of a creed, or which requires children to utter the phrase, 'I believe,' is implicitly forbidden in all the schools; in some states it is forbidden in words." Mr. Fraser, whose is the testimony I quote, has very well, from personal observation, brought out the character of a school in which there is an absence of the religious element in the teaching : “The tone of an American school, that nescio quid, so hard to be described, but so easily recognized by the experienced eye, so soon felt by the quick perceptions of the heart, if not unsatisfactory, is yet incomplete. It is true that the work of the day commences with the reading of the Word of God, generally followed by prayer. It is true that decorous, if not reverent, attention is paid during both these exercises; but the decorum struck me as rather a result or a part of discipline, than as a result of spiritual impressions ; there was no face as it had been the face of an angel-no appearance of kindled hearts. The intellectual tone of the schools is high; the moral tone, though perhaps a little too self-conscious, is not unhealthy; but another tone which can only be vaguely described in words, but of which one feels oneself in the presence when it is really there, and which, for want of a better name, I must call the religious tone, one misses, and misses with regret. A religious poet has painted in exquisite language his idea of a Christian school as it passes before a watchful pastor's scan: • Tis not the eye of keenest blaze, Nor the quick swelling breast, These do not please him best; And timid glances shy, To sue all wistfully, Yet fearing to be wrong- A lamb-like, Christ-like throng.'” (p. 13.) Even in America we learn that many are beginning to think that the seeds of morality can only be germinated under the influences of the sun of gospel righteousness, without which even a Socrates can only produce an Alcibiades. When |